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My sister Sarah and I did a New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome & Associated Disorders (NJCTS) Youth Advocate Presentation for more than 150 7th-graders last week at Galloway Township Middle School, and to put it bluntly…we killed it.

The presentation went great. The audience really learned something and thought this was a great presentation to talk about. The kids were really into it and asked a lot of questions. The Vice Principal, teachers and guidance counselor loved it. They said they want us to come back next year for the incoming 7th grade! Here are some pictures:

5 years post National Youth Ambassador Training in Washington, DC and I am still at it!

Following my fall semester at SUNY-Binghamton I was asked to return to Memorial Middle School in Fairlawn, N.J., to speak with the 7th-graders about Tourette Syndrome and bullying. During the back-to-back presentations, I had the opportunity to tell my TS story, as well as explain what the disorder is and why you should not bully anyone.

The students were engaged throughout the entire presentation and had a bunch of questions. For example:

Were you ever bullied in school?

Do you still tic?

Do you know alot of other people with TS?

They were all shocked at how difficult it was to hold in a tic when I compared it to a scratch on their head and did not allow them to touch their heads for two minutes; everyone was squiriming in their seats.

All of the students promised me that they understood my message and that they would not bully their peers.

I encourage all of you readers to speak out about Tourette Syndrome, bullying and your own personal story. If you have any quesitons about how to get involved, please contact the New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome & Associated Disorders (NJCTS).

Hi everyone! Some of you may have seen this article on CentralJersey.com last week that talked about “a mother’s connection between her children and a soccer legend.” I just wanted to share with you the e-mail my mom sent the reporter that led to the wonderful story. I hope you enjoy it!

PHOTO BY PAM HERSH/Leslie Kowalski proudly shares a copy of the book, “The Keeper: The Unguarded Story of Tim Howard,” about the soccer legend’s life with Tourette Syndrome.

I know you saw me in the emotional place of just having seen my children beautifully described in a national book, but bringing it home and quietly having the time to read Tim Howard’s book has been a very rewarding experience. Of course it’s a story of his life in the world soccer stage, but I know that very close to his heart is Tourette/OCD advocacy.

He describes extremely well what it feels like to have tics, sensory issues and compulsions — something that so few people understand. He also describes his own evolution as a TS advocate and wanting to keep that cause central to his work and how that advocacy grounds him.

It’s been 3 years since our trip to the UK to meet Tim Howard. Today, Tess is 15, and is homeschooled; Paige is 11 and attending public school and is thriving. In many ways our trip to meet Tim Howard (and his mom, who is lovely, too) still looms large in our lives.

TSA seeks at least one teen and parent/guardian team from each TSA chapter (or at least one team per state not served by a TSA chapter) to attend the upcoming YA Training. The Training for teens and their parent/adult guardian will take place March 10-12, 2015 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA.

The TSA Youth Ambassador Training is a two-day comprehensive training program aimed at creating exceptional teen leaders and TS advocates. Youth Ambassadors will receive guidance on speaking in public, on how to give a concise presentation on TS and presentation logistics. The Training also includes participation in TSA’s annual National Advocacy Day.

This is an excellent opportunity for interested teens to learn public speaking, build friendships with other teens involved in the program, gain leadership and advocacy skills, and represent the Tourette Syndrome community as they raise awareness through YA Program activities. Click here to download the application.

Your completed application should be submitted to your local Chapter. Applicants residing outside a chapter area can email or mail completed applications to TSA c/o Michelle Gutmann. All applications must be submitted no later than Friday, November 21, 2014.

I haven’t written about this on my blog yet, because truthfully I was unable to. It was a year ago that it happened, but I haven’t felt secure enough to write about it until now. It’s been a full year though and I feel like I have enough distance from it now and strength to not let it hurt me anymore.

A year ago, I was a sophmore in college who had come back to school after my first summer as a counselor at Camp Twitch and Shout. I felt empowered because I had made a difference in children’s lives who had gone though what I had, and I felt accepted and loved after being welcomed into the camp twitch and shout family. Coming back to school I was more confident, but still fragile. Other people still greatly affected how I felt about myself.

I joined a new student group on campus and opened up to them about how I was involved in the Missouri Tourette’s Syndrome Association. I didn’t tell them that I had Tourette’s, but I ticced enough that it was probably obvious. After one of the meetings, another girl in the club who was a year older than me came up to me and told me that she was a Tourette’s Syndrome Youth Ambassador and when I asked how she got involved, she told me that she had Tourette’s. I was so excited!

I told her I have TS, too, and that I wished I could have been a youth ambassador but I was too old when I found out about the program. Even though I recognized her as one of the people who interviewed during sorority recruitment for a sorority that I was rejected from and even though the people during recruitment from that particular sorority were not very kind to me, I was still excited.

She was the first (and still the only) person on campus I had met who also had TS. I saw the potential of having a friend on campus who truly understood what I was going through, who was older, and who I could look up to. I saw the potential of having someone on campus that I could have a strong relationship similar to the relationships I had made at camp. Of course I had amazing friends at school already, but the potential of having a friend on campus who also knew what it was really like to have TS was something that I felt could be really special.

I started telling her about myself and about camp and after about a minute she became very standoffish and distant. I was being nothing but kind and warm to her after she had opened up to me, and I was confused. After only a minute or two of me opening up to her, she suddenly said she had to go and walked away. Had I said something wrong?

Now that I had opened my mouth, did she think for some reason that I was just a really lame person who she didn’t want to be friends with? No, I thought. I tried to reassure myself that she must have really needed to go. She probably needed to study or meet up with someone. I tried to convince myself it had nothing to do with me, but after being rejected by so many people in my past because I was different, it was hard for me to truly convince myself of this. Deep down I thought it was something I had said, something that gave me away to be a nerd or someone who was not as “cool” as she is.